# Create and revoke API keys

Make a key for the Snipri API, copy it the only time it is shown, keep it where no one else can read it, and revoke it once it is no longer needed.

- Page: https://www.snipri.com/docs/manage-api-keys
- By [Cihan Düzgören](https://www.snipri.com/about) · November 2, 2026 · 3 min read
- Section: API, in [the Snipri docs](https://www.snipri.com/docs)

An API key lets code act for your account. Whoever holds it can send videos, which use your plan's videos, and read every job and clip you have, so keep it the way you keep a password.

## Create a key

1. Open the account menu and choose **API**.
2. Type a name under **Name a new key**. A key left without a name is called API key.
3. Press **Create key**.

The new key appears above the list with a **Copy** button. This is the only time it is shown: Snipri keeps a fingerprint of it, not the key itself, so it cannot show it again. Put it in your secret store or your server's environment before you leave the screen. A key that is lost cannot be recovered, so revoke it and make another.

- A key is snp\_ followed by 40 letters and digits.
- An account holds up to 5 keys at once. A revoked key stays on the list but no longer counts.
- A key's name can be up to 60 characters long.
- The list shows the first 12 characters of each key, the day it was made and the day it was last used. The last use is written at most once a minute.

## Keep a key safe

- Send it in the Authorization header only. A key placed in the address of a request is not read, because addresses end up in logs.
- Keep it on a server. A key built into a web page, a mobile app or a public repository can be read by anyone who opens it.
- Give each script or server its own key, named for it, so that one can be revoked without stopping the rest.
- Revoke a key as soon as it may have been seen by someone else, then make a new one.

> **Note:** A key cannot make or revoke keys, show the signing secret or change the webhook. Those are done on the API screen while you are signed in, so a key that leaks cannot take over the account.

## Revoke a key

1. On the API screen, find the key in the list. Each line shows its name, the start of the key, the day it was made and the day it was last used.
2. Press **Revoke**, then **Revoke for good** to confirm.

The key stops working on the next request, and every request sent with it from then on is refused with `UNAUTHORIZED`. The jobs it made stay in My clips with their clips. A revoked key stays on the list, marked Revoked with the day, and no longer counts toward the keys an account can hold.

## When your plan changes

Every request checks the plan the account is on at that moment. On a plan without the API, or once a paid plan has ended, every key is refused with `API_NOT_IN_PLAN`. Move back to a plan that includes the API and the same keys work again, with nothing to make anew. [Change or cancel a plan](https://www.snipri.com/docs/change-or-cancel-a-plan) covers moving between plans.

Previous guide: [Get started with the Snipri API](https://www.snipri.com/docs/get-started-with-the-api)

Next guide: [Send a video through the API](https://www.snipri.com/docs/send-a-video-with-the-api)

Still stuck? Write to [hello@snipri.com](mailto:hello@snipri.com) with the name of the video and what the screen said.